Black Joe
Black Joe, true name Ark, is a recurring character in the Witch Spring series. He is a Gold Nuuk (under Elysion's ugly-bird spell) who serves as Pieberry's guardian in Witch Spring and Witch Spring 2. In the first game, he follows Pieberry around but cannot do anything outside of plot cutscenes. He becomes a storyline-guaranteed pet in the second game, obtained at one of two possible points in Chapter 4: Black Witch. Personality Black Joe is proud of his strength as a Golden Nuuk; however, thanks to Elysion's ugly-bird spell, he is powerless unless he gets knocked unconscious and reverts to his Nuuk form. The other Nuuks in Witch Spring 2 make fun of him for his previous high-and-mighty behavior because of this. While Black Joe tends to bicker with Pieberry, and gets used as her punching bag as a result, he still cares about her well-being. He attempts to foil her journey to the Springs to hide truth about her heritage and keep her from danger, and attacks Crown after he knocks Pieberry unconscious at Elysion's Temple. Abilities In ugly bird form, Black Joe has no combat abilities to speak of. However, he has a certain degree of physical strength and can carry a grown Pieberry across rather long distances, such as the Sea of Arua. In his original form as a Gold Nuuk, Black Joe (or rather, Ark) was one of the strongest Nuuks—and knew it. His strength was what made Elysion seek him out, even though she transformed him into an ugly bird as to not scare villagers when she sent him on errands to fetch a baby Pieberry. Despite being Pieberry's guardian, he has no gameplay abilities in the first game. As a Pet A borrowed pet from Pieberry. Pieberry's servant who can talk. Can only be summoned in specific locations. As a pet, Black Joe completely negates melee damage for three blows, or reduces ranged damage by 50% for three blows. After the third blow, Black Joe will revert to his Gold Nuuk form and inflict damage on the enemy, then return to his Ugly Bird form to repeat the process. There are two ways to acquire Black Joe: beat Pieberry during the race in (requires Lucca to win), and if you lose, he automatically joins at the end of Chapter 4. He cannot be summoned at these points: Icy Plains, at any point after getting imprisoned in Chapter 5, in Temar's Room (post-game), and in the Mind Room (post-game). Evaluation Black Joe is among the strongest pets in the game because of his damage negation/reduction, and his main weakness is his limited summoning areas. When coupled with the Ice Hammer, which inflicts Freeze, Luna can take minimal damage from powerful opponents as Black Joe will reawaken to take the blow before they can get their next hit in. Trivia *According to Elysion in the "A Peaceful Day" ending in Witch Spring, she can't permanently remove Black Joe's ugly-bird spell because she has forgotten what he looked like without it. On top of that, both she and Pieberry like his ugly bird form, so they've kept him like that even after the war. Category:Pets in Witch Spring 2